Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.

Archive for September 30th, 2004

A prosecutor has requested that the main Directors of ONG Sumate, including Alejandro Plaz, Maria Corina Machado, Luis Enrique Palacios and others. They are being accused of conspiracy and treason for receiving funds from US National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The accusation is based on the charge made by none other than President Chavez on his Sunday program that Sumate had “received funding from a North American organization to destabilize the Government”. The funding from NED was used o destabilize the Government by helping people organize the petition drives to request Chavez’ recall as well as coordinating processes to guarantee that the CNE would not be able to manipulate the data. In contrast, Chavez’ “commands” for the same purpose were financed from public funds, which is called corruption in any other country.

This will be followed by processes against those that visited the Presidential Palace on April 11th. 2002 for civil rebellion, including those that signed Carmona the Brief’s decree, as well as all of those that visited the Presidential palace that day. Prosecutor Danilo Anderson said today that he does not have to call General Lucas Rincon to testify. Gen. Rincon, the highest ranking General in 2002 in the Venezuelan Armed Forces, started the whole mess on April 10th. by appearing on TV and saying that Chavez had resigned. He magically reappeared two months later as Chavez’ Minister of the Interior and Justice, position that he held until the week after the recall vote.

A prosecutor has requested that the main Directors of ONG Sumate, including Alejandro Plaz, Maria Corina Machado, Luis Enrique Palacios and others. They are being accused of conspiracy and treason for receiving funds from US National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The accusation is based on the charge made by none other than President Chavez on his Sunday program that Sumate had “received funding from a North American organization to destabilize the Government”. The funding from NED was used o destabilize the Government by helping people organize the petition drives to request Chavez’ recall as well as coordinating processes to guarantee that the CNE would not be able to manipulate the data. In contrast, Chavez’ “commands” for the same purpose were financed from public funds, which is called corruption in any other country.

This will be followed by processes against those that visited the Presidential Palace on April 11th. 2002 for civil rebellion, including those that signed Carmona the Brief’s decree, as well as all of those that visited the Presidential palace that day. Prosecutor Danilo Anderson said today that he does not have to call General Lucas Rincon to testify. Gen. Rincon, the highest ranking General in 2002 in the Venezuelan Armed Forces, started the whole mess on April 10th. by appearing on TV and saying that Chavez had resigned. He magically reappeared two months later as Chavez’ Minister of the Interior and Justice, position that he held until the week after the recall vote.

A prosecutor has requested that the main Directors of ONG Sumate, including Alejandro Plaz, Maria Corina Machado, Luis Enrique Palacios and others. They are being accused of conspiracy and treason for receiving funds from US National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The accusation is based on the charge made by none other than President Chavez on his Sunday program that Sumate had “received funding from a North American organization to destabilize the Government”. The funding from NED was used o destabilize the Government by helping people organize the petition drives to request Chavez’ recall as well as coordinating processes to guarantee that the CNE would not be able to manipulate the data. In contrast, Chavez’ “commands” for the same purpose were financed from public funds, which is called corruption in any other country.

This will be followed by processes against those that visited the Presidential Palace on April 11th. 2002 for civil rebellion, including those that signed Carmona the Brief’s decree, as well as all of those that visited the Presidential palace that day. Prosecutor Danilo Anderson said today that he does not have to call General Lucas Rincon to testify. Gen. Rincon, the highest ranking General in 2002 in the Venezuelan Armed Forces, started the whole mess on April 10th. by appearing on TV and saying that Chavez had resigned. He magically reappeared two months later as Chavez’ Minister of the Interior and Justice, position that he held until the week after the recall vote.

Problem #1: Everybody questions how you ran the election, there are accusations of fraud and manipulation, at least 40% of the population does not trust you or the process you organized. How can you regain the trust of the public?

Solution: You ask everyone about their complaints, make the process as transparent as possible, respect the law and remove all possible steps that give rise to mistrust and improve the process.

Chavista CNE solution: Maintain everything as it is, approve regulations by which machines will once again transmit the information before printing the results in violation of your own regulations, refuse to change the regional electoral boards to make them less partisan and create a position at each electoral center: the “Head” of the center, chosen and paid by you to run each electoral center. This despite the fact that the regulations say that the members of a center will be chosen at random among the voters at that center and that they will organize themselves as they see fit, choosing their own coordinator.

Problem #2: You create a number of committees to study problems. At the end of their period none of them present reports on what they did.

Solution: You make sure they write the report and give them a deadline

Chavista National assembly solution: when only 2 of 88 committees presented their reports, they eliminated 44 of them! At least the percentages improve significantly.

This revolution is so logical, coherent and democratic; you’ve got to love them.

Problem #1: Everybody questions how you ran the election, there are accusations of fraud and manipulation, at least 40% of the population does not trust you or the process you organized. How can you regain the trust of the public?

Solution: You ask everyone about their complaints, make the process as transparent as possible, respect the law and remove all possible steps that give rise to mistrust and improve the process.

Chavista CNE solution: Maintain everything as it is, approve regulations by which machines will once again transmit the information before printing the results in violation of your own regulations, refuse to change the regional electoral boards to make them less partisan and create a position at each electoral center: the “Head” of the center, chosen and paid by you to run each electoral center. This despite the fact that the regulations say that the members of a center will be chosen at random among the voters at that center and that they will organize themselves as they see fit, choosing their own coordinator.

Problem #2: You create a number of committees to study problems. At the end of their period none of them present reports on what they did.

Solution: You make sure they write the report and give them a deadline

Chavista National assembly solution: when only 2 of 88 committees presented their reports, they eliminated 44 of them! At least the percentages improve significantly.

This revolution is so logical, coherent and democratic; you’ve got to love them.